His paternal grandfather, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, was Jewish, and the rest of his family is of Christian background, including Episcopalian and Congregationalist.

Sulzberger attended Ethical Culture Fieldston School and Brown University, graduating in 2003 with a major in political science.

[7] Sulzberger worked as a reporter for The Oregonian newspaper in Portland from 2006 to 2009, writing more than 300 pieces about local government and public life, including a series of investigative exposés on misconduct by Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto.

[16][17][18] He was the lead author of the 97-page report,[12][16] which documented in "clinical detail" how the Times was losing ground to "nimbler competitors" and "called for revolutionary changes".

[17][21] In that role, he was part of the group that outlined the Times' plan to double the news outlet's digital revenue by 2020 and increase collaboration between departments,[3][22] dubbed "Our Path Forward".

SEC filings state the trust's "primary objective" is that the Times continues "as an independent newspaper, entirely fearless, free of ulterior influence and unselfishly devoted to the public welfare".

Sulzberger said in a statement that at the meeting, he "told the president directly that I thought that his [anti-press] language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous.

"[44] The Economist published a study evidencing a gradual leftward shift in the partisan slant of The New York Times, beginning in 2017.

[45] The New York Times' former opinion section editor James Bennet, in light of the paper's Tom Cotton controversy, also disagreed, arguing that by catering to a partisan readership and an influx of new journalists focusing on digital content the New York Times under A.G. Sulzberger had taken on an "illiberal bias".

An anonymous Times journalist told Politico in 2024, "All these Biden people think that the problem is Peter Baker or whatever reporter they’re mad at that day ...

"[47] In a statement from The New York Times, an uncredited spokesperson responded to the story emphasizing that it "should be troubling that President Biden has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term", and the paper's commitment to a free press.

"[51] Sulzberger's administration of the New York Times has been criticized by a number of different outlets, on topics ranging from coverage of transgender people to the Israel-Hamas war.